Posted on 06/15/2012 11:53:31 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Mr Justice Peter Jackson found that the 32-year-old, who has other chronic health conditions, ''lacked capacity'' to make a decision about life-sustaining treatment.
Sitting at the Court of Protection in London, the judge said he had to balance the preservation of life against 'personal independence.'
He said the case had ''raised for the first time in my experience the real possibility of life-sustaining treatment not being in the best interests of a person who, while lacking capacity, is fully aware of her situation''.
Giving his conclusion in a judgment made public today, he said: ''The competing factors are, in my judgment, almost exactly in equilibrium, but having considered them as carefully as I am able, I find that the balance tips slowly but unmistakably in the direction of life-preserving treatment.
''In the end, the presumption in favour of the preservation of life is not displaced.''
He declared that ''it is lawful and in her best interests for her to be fed, forcibly if necessary''.
The judge ruled that ordering her to be fed was ''proportionate and necessary in order to protect her right to life''.
''Albeit gravely unwell, she is not incurable. She does not seek death, but above all she does not want to eat or to be fed.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I side with Liberty. If she’s mentally ill, then her family should commit her and let the psychological sciences figure it out.
To have a COURT say that she must be force fed is a breach of liberty and a very dangerous precedent to be setting. If a court can decide you can be force fed, what else can they decide you MUST do?
Having been observing people with anorexia for much of my life, I'd say that there's more to it than that.
There are myriad drugs on the market to help these people, if they so choose.
That's BS. There is currently no drug that can cure anorexia. And anyway, the point is that they don't choose.
Look at some of these Indian people who claim to live 100 years eating little more than some berries ...
People like that are lying.
To have a COURT say that she must be force fed is a breach of liberty ...
So is having someone committed.
The family probably needed the court order to keep her alive. At the present time the psychological sciences don't know precisely how to fix this, although many people with it recover from the acute phase.
To have a COURT say that she must be force fed is a breach of liberty
First, how do you think a family goes about committing a 32 year old adult woman? They get a court order.
Second, the mentally ill are definitionally deprived of liberty. If you are incapable of making a rational decision, you are not enjoying what people commonly conceive of as liberty.
Third, there is a conceptual problem with claiming that the permanent destruction of one's own liberty while mentally incompetent is somehow an exercise of "liberty."
When I was sent to the psych floor because they were short staffed, the one's that wanted to purge had to stay in the dining room for at least a hour after a meal. You watch them like a hawk to keep them from using the bathroom...
This is clearly a case of mental illness, in which her judgment is no longer viable. Severe alcoholism creates a similar problem in that the judgment center of the brain has been so damaged that the person is incapable of good judgment for a minimum of six months after all alcohol consumption has ended. Yet they appear to be coherent.
Fortunately, there may now be drugs on the market that can break her out of her anorexic dilemma, that will allow her brain enough leeway to actually see that she has a problem. Only then can she be permitted to make a judgment about her life.
Unfortunately, by her actions, her lifespan has probably been shortened by decades, and proper nutrition cannot reverse this damage entirely.
In every US state that I’m aware of the standard for involuntary commitment includes the phrase “a danger to oneself.”
I made no mention of a cure for anorexia. I said there are myriad drugs on the market to HELP these people.
Off-label usage of drugs such as anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds, and in rare cases, anti-psychotics have documented utility for people with eating disorders. There is anecdotal that pharmaceutical marijuana (i.e. Marinol) can provide relief to those who wish to stop. However, and I stress this, it has to be by their own cognition, which happens more often that some people seem to think.
The FAMILY makes that decision, not the State.
Second, the mentally ill are definitionally deprived of liberty. If you are incapable of making a rational decision, you are not enjoying what people commonly conceive of as liberty.
I worked for 3 years as an orderly in a psychiatric inpatient facility and minored in abnormal psychology. Regardless of the person's decision making ability, it is still their RIGHT not to be forced to do anything, even if it is in their best interest. The best interest clause, if you want to call it that, can be revoked if a) the family decides to commit that person, b) that person has a moment of clarity to commit themself, or c) that person commits a crime and pleads mental insanity, at which point they are considered mentally incapacitated and sent to a mandatory psychiatric facility.
Contrary to what you might think, it IS possible to stabilize a mental disorder. I've seen it countless times and people can live normal lives provided they take their medication and go to regular psychiatric counseling.
Mental incompetence in the case of people who are cataleptic, comatose, catatonic, or otherwise incapable of facilitating even the simplest of day-to-day tasks are akin to any mentally handicapped person from birth. We are talking about a woman who voluntarily does not eat and does not wish to eat knowing full well that a lack of nutritional sustenance means certain death. She's a medical student. You cannot sit there and tell me that she doesn't know what she's doing!
She won’t last long. Her heart will simply give out due to weakness from lack of protein.
I would think so too, but I first met her 8 years ago and she was already like this then. I have to admit I don’t like her at all. I did feel sorry for her until she opened her mouth and started making fun of her own children. That showed me she is so hate filled inside she has to put down others, even if in a joking way, to feel good about herself. But saying things about her children is just pathetic and cruel. So everytime I see that idiot running in the hot hot sun and humidity, all I can think of is her poor children.
She is suffering from a mental illness. I’m not sure why this made the news; people with anorexia are subjected to hospitalization and being fed against their will routinely.
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